First woman found guilty of genocide

The UN war crimes tribunal for Rwanda sentenced a former government minister, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, to life in prison yesterday, the first time a woman has been found guilty of genocide by an international court.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Mrs Nyiramasuhuko and her son, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali, guilty of atrocities in Rwanda's southern Butare region. They were both sentenced to life in prison.

"The chamber convicts Pauline Nyiramasuhuko of conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, extermination, rape, persecution and ... violence to life and outrages upon personal dignity," read the ruling.

Ethnic Hutu militia and soldiers killed 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus between April and June 1994.